Blinker Profiles: Tim Bridgham

Written byTim Bridgham

Blinkers are an interesting and dynamic group of people. Each Blinker is carefully selected to join the team because we understand how he or she will positively contribute to our culture and work. And while we do post Blinker Bios on our website, we thought we’d go a little further and profile our Blinkers on our blog. Today we’d like you to get to know Tim Bridgham, IT Manager and father of the cutest dog on the planet.

Everyone arrives at Blink along his or her own path. What path brought you here? Tell us about your journey.

My journey to Blink starts in the summer of 2013 in Kansas City. After each spending nearly 30 years in the Kansas City area, my wife, Beth, and I felt the calling to try something new. Through some influence of friends and promising career options we set our sights on Seattle, WA. These same friends happened to be research participants and friends of CEO Karen Clark Cole and they had tipped me off about Blink. Earlier that year I was researching interaction design degrees, so the work at Blink really caught my eye. A position on the IT team had just opened up and after several remote interviews (including one with an appearance from our chocolate lab Kona) I was offered the job. Sight unseen we headed to Seattle and have thoroughly enjoyed our new city since.

Tim on his daily ride into work from West Seattle.

We are all encouraged to focus on an area of Thought Leadership here at Blink. Will you talk about your area?

One of my favorite aspects of UX and the work that Blink does is the core value of empathy. I strongly believe that truly caring about users is the foundation for creating great user experiences. Understanding the needs of my users (colleagues, in my case) has become a strong focus in the work that I do at Blink.

An example of how this plays out is the approach I’ve taking with support for our UX research team. During sessions, our researchers are responsible for taking notes about participants’ words and actions, occasionally communicating with clients or team members, and often navigating challenging technical equipment. They do all this all while cordially leading participants through the session. In observing this, it became clear to me that if I can build our labs and field equipment to be as easy to use as possible this will help them to discover the great insights into the problems we are trying to solve. I do whatever is necessary so that the technology used during sessions becomes invisible to the researchers so they can continue their work to uncover findings.

Who or what motivates you right now? What’s causing the greatest impact on the way you work/live/think?

Realizing what you want to do, at least for me, has been a long, drawn out process. But recently I have realized the answer to this somewhat daunting question and it has become one of my biggest motivators. I want a career in User Experience.

At the beginning of college my path seemed clear. I was to spend five years at Kansas State University studying Interior Architecture & Product Design and then start practicing. Around the halfway point in my studies that path started to become unclear. I realized that architecture wasn’t the career path for me. Until my recent realization, I struggled to pinpoint where my knowledge, talents, and passions would take me.

I have always had a passion for creating great experiences for people. Working at Blink UX has shown me how creating great experiences fosters growth and meaningful relationships, how great experiences create lifelong customers, and how creating great user experiences leads to enriching lives. Seeing the day-to-day work of those around me and collaborating on numerous projects has helped tremendously with that once daunting question.

In addition to any assistance I can give on projects at Blink, I have been working diligently to finish my undergrad in Business, Communications, and Psychology and have maintained a website chronicling my pursuit of a UX career. I am excited for what the future holds and am very thankful for the many opportunities Blink has afforded me in my journey.

When you’re not at Blink, where would we find you? And what would you be doing?

When I’m not working you can find me spending time with my wife, exploring Seattle and its amazing surroundings, riding my bike, going to shows, hanging with friends, and enjoying the delicious food and beer Seattle is known for.

Lastly, if you set out on a long voyage at sea and could only bring one book to read, what book would you select? Why?

This is probably cheating but I would bring my big book of guitar music and my guitar. I’d rather pass the time playing covers and originals than reading.

Tim is a part of the research team at Blink drawing on empathy, creativity, and curiosity to tackle UX questions and uncover valuable insights.